Monday, December 13, 2010

MMJ patient information to stay protected

Though Laura Kriho and the Cannabis Therapy Institute have raised concerns that the state's plans to translate the medical marijuana patient registry into a modern database will hurt patient privacy and conflict with wording in Amendment 20, state officials say it just ain't so.

In a news release sent out last week, Kriho said, "This patient and medicine tracking database is a clear violation of the Article XVIII, Section 14 of the constitution, Colorado's medical marijuana amendment, which requires that the health agency maintain a confidential registry of patients, which can only be accessed by law enforcement for the purpose of determining whether a person who has been detained is a member of the registry."

However, the Colorado Independentspoke with the agencies to which the database will be available and reported there's nothing to worry about.

“I don’t know where they are getting that,” said Lance Clem, public information officer for the Colorado Department of Public Safety and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. “That couldn’t happen. It just doesn’t work that way.”

Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson, who has been heavily involved in helping the state navigate the new drug laws, says the claims of Kriho are “outrageous and ill [informed].”

He says no one in law enforcement will be able to access the database except to find out if someone who has been stopped and who then claims to be a medical marijuana patient actually is one.